Characteristics of Beijing Psychological Crisis Hotline callers with the diagnosis of mental disorders / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To understand the characteristics of the callers with the diagnosis of mental disorders called Beijing Psychological Crisis Hotline for help,in order to provide specific psychological intervention services for them in future.Methods:From December 2002 to December 2008,24217 different callers'data collected from a computer-based operating system of the Beijing Psychological Crisis Hotline were analyzed.According to their self-reported of having the diagnoses of mental disorder or not,the callers were divided into the ones with diagnosis (n=6516)and the ones without diagnosis (n =17701).The callers'demographic characteristics,their main counseling problems and the suicide-related factors in the two groups were compared.Results:The top five main counseling problems in the group with diagnosis were mental problems,the mental illness related knowledge,the problems of family relationships,working problems and interpersonal problems.Mental problem ranked first in both groups.Compared to the group without diagnosis,the diagnosed ones were more likely to be found in such group of people as women,aged between 20 -29 and 30 -44,having 10 or more years of education and the unem-ployed.The results of the assessments of 11 suicide-related risk factors showed that callers with diagnoses had higher prevalence of most suicide-related factors than those in the other group(P <0.001 or 0.05),which included suicidal intention and behavior while calling,history of attempted suicide,severe depressive symptoms,severe physi-cal illness,history of being abused,afraid of being attacked,suicidal history of relatives or associates,severe of hopeless.Conclusion:The hotline counselors should be aware of the necessity of assessing the severity of depres-sion and other suicide-related factors for the callers with mental disorder diagnoses before providing any psychologi-cal intervention.Moreover,except for providing interventions on the callers'psychiatric problems,the hotline coun-selors should also identify and help to deal with the stress events in their lives.